According to a latest report, nearly half (49.6%) of all internet traffic came from bots in 2023—a 2% increase over the previous year. For the fifth consecutive year, the proportion of web traffic associated with bad bots grew to 32% in 2023, up from 30.2% in 2022, while traffic from human users decreased to 50.4%. Automated traffic is costing organizations billions (USD) annually due to attacks on websites, APIs, and applications.

The 2024 Imperva Bad Bot Report by cybersecurity company Thales presents a global analysis of automated bot traffic across the internet. The 2023 bot traffic, according to the company, is the highest level Imperva has reported since it began monitoring automated traffic in 2013. 

Nanhi Singh, General Manager, Application Security at Imperva, a Thales company, said: 

“Bots are one of the most pervasive and growing threats facing every industry. From simple web scraping to malicious account takeover, spam, and denial of service, bots negatively impact an organization’s bottom line by degrading online services and requiring more investment in infrastructure and customer support. Organizations must proactively address the threat of bad bots as attackers sharpen their focus on API-related abuses that can lead to account compromise or data exfiltration.”

Key trends identified in the 2024 Imperva Bad Bot Report include:

• Global average of bad bot traffic reached 32%: Ireland (71%), Germany (67.5%), and Mexico (42.8%), saw the highest levels of bad bot traffic in 2023. The US also saw a slightly higher ratio of bad bot traffic at 35.4% compared to 2022 (32.1%).

• Growing use of generative AI connected to the rise in simple bots: Rapid adoption of generative AI and large language models (LLMs) resulted in the volume of simple bots increasing to 39.6% in 2023, up from 33.4% in 2022. The technology uses web scraping bots and automated crawlers to feed training models, while enabling nontechnical users to write automated scripts for their own use.

• Account takeover is a persistent business risk: Account takeover (ATO) attacks increased 10% in 2023, compared to the same period in the prior year. Notably, 44% of all ATO attacks targeted API endpoints, compared to 35% in 2022. Of all login attempts across the internet, 11% were associated with account takeover. The industries that saw the highest volume of ATO attacks in 2023 were Financial Services (36.8%), Travel (11.5%), and Business Services (8%).

• APIs are a popular vector for attack: Automated threats caused a significant 30% of API attacks in 2023. Among them, 17% were bad bots exploiting business logic vulnerabilities—a flaw within the API’s design and implementation that allows attackers to manipulate legitimate functionality and gain access to sensitive data or user accounts. Cybercriminals use automated bots to find and exploit APIs, which act as a direct pathway to sensitive data, making them a prime target for business logic abuse.

• Every industry has a bot problem: For a second consecutive year, Gaming (57.2%) saw the largest proportion of bad bot traffic. Meanwhile, Retail (24.4%), Travel (20.7%), and Financial Services (15.7%) experienced the highest volume of bot attacks. The proportion of advanced bad bots, those that closely mimic human behavior and evade defenses, was highest on Law & Government (75.8%), Entertainment (70.8%), and Financial Services (67.1%) websites.

• Bad bot traffic originating from residential ISPs grows to 25.8%: Early bad bot evasion techniques relied on masquerading as a user agent (browser) commonly used by legitimate human users. Bad bots masquerading as mobile user agents accounted for 44.8% of all bad bot traffic in the past year, up from 28.1% just five years ago. Sophisticated actors combine mobile user agents with the use of residential or mobile ISPs. Residential proxies allow bot operators to evade detection by making it appear as if the origin of the traffic is a legitimate, ISP-assigned residential IP address.

“Automated bots will soon surpass the proportion of internet traffic coming from humans, changing the way that organizations approach building and protecting their websites and applications,” continued Singh. “As more AI-enabled tools are introduced, bots will become omnipresent. Organizations must invest in bot management and API security tools to manage the threat from malicious, automated traffic.”

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The volume of sensitive data stored in the cloud has seen a dramatic increase in the last couple of years. A full 75% of businesses globally report that 40% or more of their data in the cloud is sensitive – a number that has seen over 50 percent growth as compared to the 2021 number (49%), according to the 2023 Thales Cloud Security Study. But are businesses doing enough to protect this sensitive data? 

Despite the reported increase in sensitive data in the cloud, the study found low levels of encryption being used. Only 19% of IT professionals in India (22% globally) reported that more than 60% of their sensitive data in the cloud is encrypted. According to the findings of the survey, on average, only 45% of cloud data is currently encrypted globally.

The study that surveyed more than 3,000 IT and security professionals across 18 countries throws some more unsettling facts about the state of cloud security. 

More than a third (35%) of respondents in India have experienced a data breach in their cloud environment last year with a significantly higher global average of 46%. 

Here are a few other findings from the survey: 

• Human error was reported as the leading cause of cloud data breaches by over half of those surveyed (52% in India, 55% globally 

• More than a third (38%) respondents globally ranked Software as a Service (SaaS) applications as the leading target for hackers, closely followed by cloud-based storage (36%).

• Only 16% of those surveyed in India and 14% globally stated that they controlled all of the keys to their encrypted data in their cloud environments.

• 44% of Indian organizations expressed that managing data in the cloud is more complex than in on-premises environments. 

• Globally, 83% expressed concerns over data sovereignty, and 55% agreed that data privacy and compliance in the cloud has become more difficult.

Pathways to Better Cloud Security

Identity and access management (IAM) is a crucial measure in mitigating data breaches, emphasising the significance of strong security practices. Encouragingly, the adoption of robust multi-factor authentication (MFA) has risen to 65% globally, indicating progress in fortifying access controls.

Surprisingly, only 41% of organisations worldwide have implemented zero trust controls in their cloud infrastructure, and an even smaller percentage (38%) utilise such controls within their cloud networks

“ Considering the rising cyberthreats in India and globally, treating cloud environments as an extension of existing infrastructure while maintaining exclusive control and security of data, especially sensitive data, is key to cloud security. Another essential aspect of cyber security is customer control of encryption keys, as it allows organisations to leverage the scalability, cost efficiency, and accessibility benefits of the cloud while ensuring the utmost integrity and confidentiality of their valuable information. This becomes more critical for Indian organizations as 68% of respondents in India reported over 40% of their cloud data as sensitive,” stated Ashish Saraf, VP & Country Director – India, Thales.

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